Thought for the Lord's Day - #53

A friend posted most of this to his blog recently, and it really stuck with me...what was deserved, what could have been done to Adam, vs. what actually happened to him. Striking really.

From Matthew Henry's Commentary on Gen. 3:22:

God drove him out, made him go out, whether he would or no. This signified the exclusion of him, and all his guilty race, from that communion with God which was the bliss and glory of paradise. The tokens of God's favour to him and his delight in the sons of men, which he had in his innocent estate, were now suspended; the communications of his grace were withheld, and Adam became weak, and like other men, as Samson when the Spirit of the Lord had departed from him. His acquaintance with God was lessened and lost, and that correspondence which had been settled between man and his Maker was interrupted and broken off. He was driven out, as one unworthy of this honour and incapable of this service. Thus he and all mankind, by the fall, forfeited and lost communion with God. But whither did he send him when he turned him out of Eden? He might justly have chased him out of the world (Job xviii. 18), but he only chased him out of the garden. He might justly have cast him down to hell, as he did the angels that sinned when he shut them out from the heavenly paradise, <2 4.="" a="" abandoned="" and="" be="" blockquote="" but="" by="" chain.="" converse="" designing="" despair="" drag="" dungeon="" earth="" eating="" end.="" excluded="" first="" for="" from="" fruits="" god="" good="" grave="" ground="" he="" him="" his="" hold="" humble="" ii.="" improvable="" innocency="" its="" keep="" latter="" love="" man="" new="" not="" observe="" of="" only="" our="" out="" parents="" pet.="" place="" plough="" prison-house="" privileges="" probation="" purposes="" recompensed="" remind="" s="" second="" sent="" state="" taken.="" taken="" terms.="" that="" the="" their="" them="" then="" they="" though="" thoughts="" till="" tilling="" to="" toil="" torment.="" upon="" was="" were="" whence="" which="" with="" work-house="" would="" yet="">